Strategy for Human Resource

Management
Lecture 3
Strategic Implications of a Dynamic HRM
Environment

HRM 765
1
 Last Lecture
• Introduction to HRM Process and functions
– Recruitment and selection
– Orientation and Training
– Performance management
– Compensation and benefits
– Career Development

2
 Learning Outcomes
• After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

• Discuss how cultural environments affect human resource

management (HRM) practices.
• Describe how technology is changing HRM.
• Identify significant changes that have occurred in workforce
composition.
• Describe the HRM implications of a labor shortage.
• Describe how changing skill requirements affect HRM.

3
 Learning Outcomes

• Explain why organizational members focus on quality and

continuous improvements.
• Describe work process engineering and its implications for
HRM.
• Identify who makes up the contingent workforce and the
HRM implications.
• Define employee involvement and list its critical components.
• Explain the importance of ethics in an organization.

4
 Introduction
• The World of Work - continues to change, but at
an even more rapid pace.
• HR must understand the implications of:
– globalization
– technology changes
– workforce diversity
– changing skill requirements
– continuous improvement initiatives
– the contingent work force
– decentralized work sites
– and employee involvement

5
Understanding Cultural Environments
• Today’s business world is truly a global village.
This term refers to the fact that businesses
currently operate around the world.

6
 Understanding Cultural Environments
• HRM must ensure that
– employees can operate in the appropriate language
– communications are understood by a multilingual work force
• Ensure that workers can operate in cultures that differ on
variables such as
– status differentiation
– societal uncertainty
– individualism
• HRM also must help multicultural groups work together.

7
 Understanding Cultural
Environments
• GLOBE Dimensions:

– Future Orientation
– Gender Differentiation
– Uncertainty Avoidance
– Power Distance
– Performance orientation
– Humane orientation

8
 Understanding Cultural
Environments
• Cultural Implications for HRM
– Not all HRM theories and practices are
universally applicable.
– HRM must understand varying cultural values.

9
The Changing World of Technology
• Has altered the way people work.
• Has changed the way information is
created, stored, used, and shared.
• The move from agriculture to
industrialization created a new group of
workers.
• Since WWII, the trend has been a
reduction in manufacturing work and an
increase in service jobs.
10
The Changing World of Technology
• Knowledge Worker - individuals whose jobs are
designed around the acquisition and application
of information.
• Why the emphasis on technology:
– makes organizations more productive
– helps them create and maintain a competitive
advantage
– provides better, more useful information

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The Changing World of Technology
• How Technology Affects HRM Practices
– Recruiting
– Employee Selection
– Training and Development
– Ethics and Employee Rights
– Communication
– Decentralized Work Sites
– Skill Levels
– Legal Concerns

12
 Workforce Diversity

• Different people
– Places
– Languages
– cultures.
– Religions

• The challenge is to make organizations

more accommodating to diverse groups of
people.

13
 Workforce Diversity
• The Workforce Today
– Minorities and women have become the
fastest growing segments
– The numbers of immigrant workers and older
workers are increasing

14
 Workforce Diversity
• How Diversity Affects HRM
– Need to attract and maintain a diversified work
force that is reflective of the diversity in the
general population.
– Need to foster increased sensitivity to group
differences.
– Must deal with the different
• Values
• Needs
• Interests
• Expectations of employees

15
 Workforce Diversity
• What Is a Work/Life Balance?
– A balance between personal life and work
– Causes of the blur between work and life
• The creation of global organizations means the
world never sleeps.
• Communication technologies allow employees to
work at home.
• Organizations are asking employees to put in
longer hours.
• Fewer families have a single breadwinner.

16
 Summary
• Understanding Work World
• Understanding Culture Environment
• Technology
• Work force diversity
• How diversity affect HRM
• Work Life Balance

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